Microsoft has launched a new spoof web site to help market the WHS. The initial video is worth watching for a laugh. Check it out at http://www.stayathomeserver.com/

Enjoy,

Well I am excited, while looking through the UMart (my local bulk PC parts store) price list for a new graphics card I noticed they currently have more than 5 copies of Windows Home Server in stock. :-)

 For just $225AU I am tempted to just buy a copy and as my current install of WHS RC1 is due to expire in another 20 days, I cannot wait much longer for it to appear on my Technet/ MSDN subscription.

I’m getting excited, the release date for WHS has arrived in Australia and I’m itching to deploy the released software and some of the cool new tools to my Production Home Server. Yes, I have two now… That is the problem with running beta software in production at home. Your wife tends to get angry when it breaks….

 I have tried WHS Toolkit V1, AutoExit 2008, DiskKeeper and WebGuide add-ons for WHS over the past few days and found them overall very useful. Only the WHS Toolkit will install correctly using the WHS Console, all others require logging onto the console or using remote desktop and doing the install manually.

The WHS Toolkit V1 is a Microsoft tool design to provide additional control and debugging features to the WHS Console. The Toolkit download is design to be downloaded and installed on a standard PC in your network, a shortcut created in the start menu to copy the WHS-MSI installer to the \\server\software\add-ins\ directory. Using the WHS console, under settings you install the add-in and the tools included work very well.

AutoExit 2008 is user created freeware utility to provide all those little features you wish Microsoft had included in a ‘Advanced’ section of the console. Things like remote start-up and shut-down of PC’s, NetSend and statistics on computers.

DiskKeeper 2008 is a scheduled disk-defragmentation software able to automatically defragment the disks in your WHS. Seeing how most people will have at least 2 or 3 disks with over 500GB of data, this is an excellent addition to keep your server running nice and fast. As most of your data will now be stored on the server, you only need a single copy of the defragmentation software on your home network. An important point to note, is the software must be installed locally on the server using an EXE file and then the console add-ins activated by using the add-in install section of the WHS console.

WebGuide is an awesome piece of software that scratches that tiny itch most current WHS users have. It provides simple graphic access to the media stored on the home server and around the network, the only short fall is the seperate usernames and passwords. On my production WHS, my biggest grief is trying to show friends or family a particular photo. Sure we have nice easy access to the server shares and file system but there is no easy way of seeing thumbnails of the photo or video before I download it. As a person with over 16’000 photo’s this can be a problem.

When Santa-Gates asks me what I want for Christmas, I know what I will be telling him.

Thanks to Russ for pointing this out…

 meraTechPort has stated WHS will be available for download on the MSDN network. Now I assume this includes the TechNet which makes available for all those who purchased TechNet direct for a copy of Vista & Office. I guess Microsoft realised that providing it on MSDN would allow companies to develop plug-in applications for it more easily and rapidly than they would having to purchase several copies of the software.

There is no release date as yet, but I can wait as long as the RC continues to work.

Check out the original article here.